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Malted Cakes or Fancy Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with malt flour, optional egg and dried fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Malted Cakes or Fancy Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. In a warm place, mix the flours and sugar together in a bowl.

  2. Add the fat and mix until crumbly.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the water or milk with the egg if using.

  4. Gradually add the liquid to the dry ingredients, mixing until a soft dough forms.

  5. If making rock buns, ensure the mixture is stiff and add dried fruit.

Shape, rise and bake

  1. Shape the dough into rolls or loaves and place in a greased tin.

  2. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.

  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake for about 30-40 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Malt flour
Adds malty flavour and sugars that help the crust brown during baking.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and lets it hold its risen shape.
Fat
Tenderises the crumb and adds richness by coating flour particles and limiting gluten toughness.
Egg
Adds richness, structure and colour to the crumb when used.

The step that matters

Gradually add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Adding liquid slowly lets the flour absorb it evenly, so the dough hydrates without becoming sticky or dense. Too much liquid at once makes it hard to judge the right soft consistency.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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